Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under R.N.I 53640/91
Vol. XXXII No. 23, March 16-31, 2023
The Southern Railway, which has been chalking up plans to modernise the Egmore railway station, has finally released details. In what promises to be a complete sweep of the premises, the station will get a much-needed infrastructural upgrade. What is heartening is that the heritage aspect of the station is to be retained, with much of it being repurposed. But will the proposed modernisation dwarf the age-old edifice? That is an aspect that the railways will do well to ponder over even as it goes ahead with the makeover.
There is no doubting the fact that the Egmore station, the second such facility in the city after Central, is urgently in need of changes. What was once a largely empty station with trains on metre gauge and essentially from Chennai to the south, has morphed into a busy terminus for broad gauge trains from all over India. That by itself has caught the infrastructure unawares. Added to this, the increased congestion in the neighbourhood has also added to the station’s woes. Getting off public transport and walking to the building is a nightmare owing to the chaotic traffic. Driving in is another matter altogether, and as for parking, that is a near impossibility. The railways did attempt some expansion to the rear of the station, essentially to cater
The two-minute video appeared on social media channels in the first week of March. Set in what seems to be an unreserved coach on a moving train in Tamil Nadu, it shows a man asking one of his co-passengers whether he speaks Tamil or Hindi; the scene then shows him proceeding to abuse
And so, finally, Egmore station is to see some sweeping changes, much of it essential. The story “Egmore Station to undergo extensive makeover” has all the details. Once the Madras terminal of what was the South Indian Railway Company
The name has been around for long, in fact so long, that nobody knows how it came about. As is usual, a number of stories with no facts to support them have been bandied around. There is no round tana in fact – all that remains is a statue of Annadurai marking the spot where it stood. But round tana is still spoken of as though it exists. It is one of those enduring lost landmarks of the city.
Old records clearly indicate that the name owes its origins to a round or circular police station that stood there. The word Thana is pan-Indian and has existed
India was preparing itself for Independence. The time was also coinciding with the need being felt in restoring India’s forgotten culture and heritage. Ramaswamy Krishnamoorthy (1899-1954) (hereafter, Ra Ki) and Thiagaraja Sadasivam (1902-1997) established Kalki in 1941. Providence brought Maniam to Kalki as a young artist. Soon the combination of Ra Ki’s writing and Maniam’s artwork began to create magic among Kalki readers and subscribers. This was possible because of the synchronization of thinking between the two creators Ra Ki and Maniam that developed over a decade. Let us see from the start.